Heroes or villains? Courts in Crisis

The economic crisis is driving significant change in political institutions at both national and European levels. The role of the executive in the economy is being reconfigured opening up important questions of accountability and democratic legitimacy. Less well understood is what is happening to courts in the crisis. After a period in which courts were treated with benign neglect, European integration studies discovered courts as institutional actors. In so doing, European courts have often been depicted in heroic terms not least when harnessed towards liberal causes - non-discrimination - and when utilised by social movements to unblock or bypass domestic political or legal blockages. Yet in more recent times, European courts have been attacked for failing to defend social movements - eg trade unions - and failing to ensure fidelity to the rule of law as executive power shifts and morphs. Indeed it is to national courts that some have turned for a defence of social values in the face of austerity. This contribution explores the complex relationship between courts and the crisis. Particular attention is paid to the roles assigned to, or assumed by, national constitutional courts and the European Court of Justice.